


katabasis

by ruins



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Horror, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27294706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruins/pseuds/ruins
Summary: it's only a dream.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	katabasis

Jack knows this place, knows this dream. Human memory is a frail, imperfect thing, the shape the shadows take is immaterial against the feelings they evoke. The room is sparsely decorated. The bed is laughably small, sheets and blanket tucked in with a near military tightness. Pillow placed so perfectly, Rhys almost looks like he's sleeping.

_Johnny boy._

The air practically hums with the syllables. Jack feels surrounded by it, caged. Pierced by phantom needles with merciless, serrated edges that pin him in place. Jack swivels around on the balls of his feet, but punches only empty space.

_It's for your own good, John._

Jack snarls and turns back to Rhys, bending down and hefting the inert man up. Rhys is soaking wet, blue lips parted. It's not real. He can’t allow it to be. With Rhys dangling in his grip, he stomps over to the door, kicking it open with futile anger.

_John, don't be a coward._

Just a dream, but still the thick black smoke chokes Jack. The heat of the Hyperion blast furnace doesn't warm him, doesn't coax life into Rhys. Seeing it again wounds him: the makeshift crematorium he used on Angel's mother all those years ago.

_Look at me when I am speaking to you, John._

An old bone-deep despair, regret burned raw and left to fester. He couldn't bury her body, no. No matter how deep, Pandora's hungry wildlife would smell the rotting meat, the putrefying blood, the gunpowder perfume. Jack wouldn’t allow her bullet-mangled body any further desecration.

_John, Johnny, you stupid boy._

Flames dance out from the furnace, searing and scorching everything in their wake. His shirttails are ruined, singed. No exit. Jack clutches Rhys close and enters the fire.

His face burns. It burns clarity in him, bright and terrible.

The Vault in Elpis glitters, feels more real than anything else.

Screw this, seriously. It's a dream, nonsense logic should apply. Rhys was drowned like that cat was. Dreams don't make sense, even ones from Jack's totally rational engineer's brain. Jack only has a vague idea of how CPR works, but it has to be enough. He wills it to be enough.

Jack's reminded of a story, one he told Angel when she was young. About a princess cursed to a sleep like death forever. Only awakened by true love's kiss. Some pretty lies, he thinks while exhaling air into Rhys' cold mouth, about fairies and magic and true love.

It works. It actually _works._ Rhys' eyelashes flutter. Hope stabs Jack. A pain to match his ruined face: white hot and straight through his heart.

“ _John_ ,” Rhys says. The word slips like poison from his mouth.

Jack loves Rhys, even as he strangles him to death.

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween


End file.
